Approximately 22,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2011 and approximately 15,000 will die of this disease (Edwards et al., J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005; 97:1407-27).
Ovarian cancer symptoms are often vague. Women and their doctors often blame the symptoms on other, more common conditions. By the time the cancer is diagnosed, the tumor has often spread beyond the ovaries. Treatment of ovarian cancer usually involves a combination of surgery and chemotherapy.
While most ovarian cancer patients will have a complete response with surgery and chemotherapy, the majority will relapse and die of their disease. The high relapse rate in ovarian cancer after complete clinical response may be due to a cancer stem cell model in which rare, inherently chemoresistant cancer stem cells capable of proliferating and differentiating to regenerate the various cell types within a tumor, thereby causing relapse of the disease.
Additional treatments for ovarian cancer are needed. Treatment that target cancer stem cells are particularly needed.